Nicholas Pileggi (/pɪˈlɛdʒi/, Italian: [piˈleddʒi]; born February 22, 1933) is an American author, producer and screenwriter. He wrote the non-fiction book Wiseguy and co-wrote the screenplay for Goodfellas, its 1990 film adaptation, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Pileggi was born and raised in Brooklyn, the elder son of an Italian immigrant father, Nicola ("Nick") Pileggi from Calabria and an American-born mother, Susie. Nicola "Nick" Pileggi was a musician who played slide trombone in a cinema orchestra for silent films; he subsequently also owned shoe stores.
In the 1950s, he worked as a journalist for Associated Press and New York magazine, specializing in crime reporting for more than three decades.

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